There is an increasing prevalence in minimally invasive spinal procedures. For instance, percutaneous delivery of bone graft or bone graft substitute to aid implants or screws (also potentially delivered percutaneously) in fixing and/or fusing portions of the spinal column. However, there are challenges to delivering such bone graft materials percutaneously during minimally invasive surgical procedures. As used herein, the term “bone graft” includes, but is not limited to bone graft, bone graft alternative, bone graft substitute, bone marrow aspirate, demineralized bone matrix, or mixtures thereof, whether occurring naturally or artificially, unless specified otherwise. It should further be understood that the term bone graft may refer to, separately or in combination with any or all of the materials provided above, bone marrow aspirate, blood, and saline.
Currently, in certain surgical procedures, bone graft is provided to a surgeon in a pre-loaded syringe. The surgeon may transfer the bone graft from the syringe to an injector device with the syringe and the injector device being aligned along the same axis. However, using pre-loaded bone graft may reduce the ability of the surgeon to use a particular desired bone graft for a particular procedure. Further, loading bone graft from a syringe to an injector device with both components aligned along the same axis may be difficult because bone graft materials may behave as non-Newtonian fluids. For example, some bone graft materials do not flow easily, particularly through funnel-like or conical geometries, from a relatively large holding area, such as a cylinder or tube, to a relatively small holding area.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved bone graft delivery loading assembly and methodology that addresses these and other drawbacks with prior art systems.